Mark T. Hebner is a highly regarded authority on
investing, author and creator of and is featured in
an award winning documentary film on index funds.
This is the condensed, updated and revised version
of his original and widely praised first book, Index
Funds.
Like many investors, Hebner’s conversion to passive
investing was sparked by his realization that the
traditional brokerage paradigm had substantially
hampered his own investment success — causing
him to significantly underperform a risk-appropriate
index portfolio by as much as $30 million. This
striking revelation about just how much damage Wall
Street inflicts on unwitting individual and institutional
investors has served as the impetus for his tireless
efforts to educate and inform investors so they can
make better investment decisions.
Hebner is on a mission to change the way the world
invests by replacing speculation with an education. With
this in mind, he leads a team of writers, artists, graphic
designers, mathematicians, statisticians and researchers
to build as well as maintain ifa.com — considered one
of the Internet’s most comprehensive websites on
investing. Hebner’s website, book, and documentary
film, elegantly set forth long-term data and research
that educate and empower investors to make sound
investment choices.
This book is arguably the
most artistic ever written on
investing. It contains more
than 65 original oil paintings
created by distinguished artist,
Lala Ragimov. It also includes
more than 115 color charts and
graphs, many of which reflect
as much as 90 years of stock
market data. This one-of-a-kind little jewel is an eyepleasing manifestation of hundreds of studies, decades
of research, and clearly represents Hebner’s ongoing
commitment to educate investors throughout the
world. It is destined to emerge as the go-to handbook
for intelligent, evidence-based investing.

The financial services industry has a dark secret, one
that costs global investors nearly $2.5 trillion each year.
This secret quietly drains the investment portfolios and
retirement accounts of almost every investor. In 1900,
French mathematician Louis Bachelier unsuspectingly
revealed this disturbing fact to the world. Since
then, hundreds of academic studies have supported
Bachelier’s findings. Unfortunately, investors pay little
attention to academics and Nobel Laureates.
The dark secret is that managers don’t beat markets.
The fact is that markets outperform managers by a
substantial margin over long periods of time. This
book offers overwhelming proof of this and shows
investors how to obtain optimal rates of return by
matching their risk capacity to an appropriate risk
exposure. A globally diversified portfolio of index
funds is the optimal way to accomplish this.
Index Funds: The 12-Step Recovery Program for Active Investors
is the treatment of choice for wayward investors. It has
been praised by Harry Markowitz, Burton Malkiel,
David Booth and Theodore Aronson, among others.
Investment advisor Anders Oldenburg of Seligson &
Company nominated the previous version as one of
the three “All-time Greatest Investment Books,” along
with the writings of John Bogle and Warren Buffett.
Most investors continue to embrace an active investing
strategy, despite the extensive academic research
demonstrating its futility. Market timing or speculating
on the next winning stock, fund manager or investment
style are all akin to gambling. Below-market returns in
investment portfolios and pension accounts are the result
of investors gambling with their hard-earned money. This
12-Step Program will put active investors on the road to
recovery. Each step is designed to bring investors closer
to embracing a prudent and sound strategy of buying,
holding and rebalancing an index portfolio.
Cover design: arismandesign.com